Well Friday night was well spent. We packed our group together in two cars and headed out to The Little Theatre of Manchester to see Bus Stop.
The story line was about an unlikely group of people finding themselves stranded in a snow storm at a small diner in the middle of nowhere, and the story lines that develop from this chance meeting. The time line is set in the mid 50's and the stage was filled with nostalgic memorabilia from that time frame. The owner of the diner was a middle aged, rather round woman named Grace, who's husband had run off on her many years before. She's run the diner ever since and is a capable, likable woman. Her waitress is a young high school girl named Elma, who is a straight A student and not very worldly at all (I imagine she's rather typical for the 50's if you're a "good girl".). Then there is Will; the tall and portly sheriff who is a dependable and friendly guy full of common sense and fair play but nobody's fool.
The play opens with these three characters and in a little while they are joined by the people stranded when the bus can't go any further because the roads are all closed from the snow. In comes Cherie, who tells the sheriff and the others she has been forced to get on the bus by a cowboy who wants to marry her and just won't take no for an answer. Then Dr Gerald Lyman comes stumbling in looking like a college professor and eventually spouting Shakespeare as he doctors his soda with a flask he carries in his jacket and starts coming on to Elma. I began to wonder if I got Elma's age wrong when he started paying her so much attention. But she was acting like a star struck school girl and he was very funny in his bumbling attempt to appear sophisticated and worldly while getting progressively drunker.
Carl the bus driver came blowing in and made a bee line for Grace. We had a strong indication that something was going on between the two of them when Carl suddenly decided it was a good time for him to take a long walk...in the middle of a snow storm! Grace developed a sudden headache and went to her apartment upstairs to lay down...that being the only thing that would help her terrible headache. Hmmmmmm....me thinks there's mischief a foot but none of the other people seemed to think it was strange at all and our hero of the day was arriving anyway.
In comes Bo Decker; the young cowboy and ranch owner....and the guy who is doing his best to abduct Cherie (which he pronounces as Cherry!) for his wife and to haul her to his ranch in Montana. Bo's best friend and father figure is Virgil, who comes in right behind him. Virgil is the type of guy that made me think of Chris Kristopherson or Sam Elliot...sort of laid back and full of useful information if you'd just take the time to listen. He seemed to have more sense then all the rest of them put together. He was a quiet fella and really shined when he played the guitar, singing softly while the rest of them went through their drama's for our amusement.
Well Elma is falling girlishly in love with Dr Lyman who is making plans to meet her the following weekend without her family knowing it. He's old enough to be her father and she's young enough to be extremely flattered that he calls her pretty. You'd think that the audience would be hating this guy but actually he was extremely funny and well educated...a very likable guy...despite his interest in the girl.
Cherie is for the most part an uneducated young woman who is good at heart but the product of a bad upbringing and has fallen into a sad way of life, singing in a sleazy nightclub and sleeping around, hoping to meet a man who will treat her right and respect her. She's going about it the wrong way but hey, that's Cherie. She sings "That Old Black Magic" in an impromptu talent show that Alma starts to pass the time while they wait out the storm.
It comes out (via Virgil) that Bo was a virgin before Cherie and is so inexperienced with woman that he immediately fell in love with her and assumed she was in love with him as well. While Cherie, with enough experience to go around for everyone, assumed that Bo was just another loud mouthed, pushy man that didn't know how to listen and didn't really care how she felt as long as he got what he wanted.
Bo did spend the majority of the play acting like an ass; shooting his mouth off at the sheriff; bragging about himself and his ranch; grabbing Cherie every chance he got and generally making a nuisance of himself in general. He riled the sheriff enough at one point for the sheriff to take him outside and beat some sense into him. The sheriff came back the same as he went out but Bo was sporting a black eye and a quiet attitude when he came back.
Finally Dr Lyman becomes drunk enough to pass out on a bench and is left to sleep it off. While Carl the bus driver comes back (without a coat on and not even cold) followed a short time later by Grace who has recovered from her "headache". The sheriff mentions that it's odd that Carl's over shoes were in front of Grace's apartment door and the cats out of the bag about them. Grace sets Alma straight about Dr Lyman (who is snoring peacefully on the bench) so she's learned a lesson before anything got out of hand. Bo has learned that you have to show your softer side with women and makes up with Cherie (whom he is still calling Cherry). Cherie finally realizes that Bo is the best thing that will ever come her way and decides it's not such a bad thing to go live on his ranch and become his wife. Virgil has managed to talk some sense into Bo about how to treat woman (with the help of the sheriff's fist I might add) and decides to go his own way and let Bo and Cherie start their new life together. Carl will continue driving the bus and stopping to "visit" with Grace; a situation that suits them both. Alma will be a little bit smarter about men who flatter her and before the play ends we find out that Dr Lyman has been in trouble before for getting involved with young girls. These days a man like him would be labeled as a pedophile and considered a vile and disgusting person. But somehow in this play he didn't come off that way. I got the feeling that he was just a sad, lonely man, looking to impress young girls because most other people were able to see him as the pathetic wandering drunk that he really is and treated him as a social outcast.
Over all the play was well done and the characters were well played. The stage was very accurate in it's display of the 50's and really gave you the feeling that you were in a small diner. There were lessons learned (if you were paying attention) and laughs to be had. You were drawn into liking or disliking each character as the situations changed with the progression of the play. I personally started out really disliking the Bo character (he certainly wasn't my cup of tea) until he showed us he could learn to be a better man. Cherie was a hot mess in the beginning but in the end we were given a chance to appreciate that anyone can change for the better if given half a chance. Alma started out as a naive little egg head and ended up being a nice girl that has a bright future in front of her. Grace; Carl and Will (the sheriff) will continue happily on the way they are and Virgil, although choosing to go into the great unknown alone, has set Bo and Cherie on the road to a happy life together and can feel good about that. But then there is Dr Lyman. What about him? Well he'll probably just continue to be a drunken pervert rolling from town to town looking to take advantage of young girls until he's too old for anyone to even notice him or the drink takes him down. I suppose that's the only real sad part of the play. But then it's only a play and I guess not everyone can have a happy ending. :)
